Independent filmmakers all know the value and
import of looping, or "Automated Dialog Replacement." ADR has long
been a Hollywood practice, although some films are now using more
wild audio than ever before. Essentially, this practice is a matter
of bringing talent into a studio and having them re-record dialog
from the set where they may have been filmed/taped earlier. This
accomplished several goals.
- It allows for clean recording without room
noise or noise from surrounding equipment
ADR allows for a more emotional take in
many instances, as the actor/actress may have been physically
exhausted, not responding verbally well with other elements of the
show, or may have not had the right inflection
Allows for wild audio to be less of a
concern, making sure dialog tracks are clean and articulate.
Offers total control and multiple takes for
"comping" to the director. (Comping is taking several takes,
extracting various words from each take to create one complete
line. Imagine building a complete sentence from fragments of other
sentences. This is comping, and allows for the best performance
possible in many instances)
- Many actors enjoy the opportunity to
re-record lines, as it allows them to inject more passion into
their vocal performance, particularly when they can see the film
in rough context. (It has been suggested that
Marlon Brando deliberately mumbled his lines on set so that he
could see a complete scene in context prior to recording his final
lines.)
Looping has never been easier than it is in
Sony Vegas 6 software. Vegas 6 is likely one of the easiest tools
available for looping. Providing the talent with an in-sync external
monitor, the director or engineer/editor can play the same scene
over and over while the talent records their lines as they look at
themselves. Vegas allows for the scene to be placed in a "loop"
mode, so that it simply repeats the selection as many times as the
engineer/editor/director requires.
To set Vegas up for looping, you'll need at
least one external monitor. External monitor can be a standard
television monitor, a flat screen, a second computer monitor, or a
bank of monitors fed from a distribution system. In the Vegas
Preferences, find options for SDI output, 1394 output for SD/DV
previews, and a Secondary Monitor preview. The Secondary monitor
preview uses a two-head monitor card, so you'll need to have a dual
monitor setup with a dual head video card, or a pair of video cards
installed. Having two monitors with a loop from one to the other is
very helpful as it provides both talent and director/engineer the
ability to watch the screen during the ADR sessions.
The 1394 output is for outputting video via
Firewire/iLink to a converter device such as the Convergent Designs
SD Connect, a Canopus converter, an ADS AV Link, or other similar
devices.
If you have a Decklink card, this will
function as an SDI output.
Set up the external monitor of choice,
generally offering the external monitor in the same room as the
talent is re-recording their dialog. This allows them to see their
lip movements and time their re-recording to match. If the talent
can't see their image during re-recording, it makes the process much
slower, especially if the wild audio isn't very well recorded and
intelligible. The director/editor can either watch the same scene on
a second external monitor, as the Vegas Preview window will not
display video when external modes are enabled.
